Universities that help graduate students offset the rising costs of earning an advanced degree are better positioned to recruit top talent. And with several years of tuition increases and state funding decreases, graduate schools are looking to corporate partners for support. The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) is pleased to announce that Broadcom Foundation has pledged such assistance in the form of graduate fellowships.

Broadcom Foundation will contribute $400,000 over two years to establish graduate fellowships at the Samueli School. The gift will fund four electrical engineering graduate students each year for the next two years.

“Student fellowships have become increasingly important as schools around the country vie for the brightest young minds,” said Samueli School Dean Gregory Washington. “Students are a source of great energy and innovation, and this support from Broadcom Foundation will enable us to recruit the best engineering students who have promise in electrical engineering.”

G.P. Li, UCI professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will administer the program that will support graduate students interested in conducting interdisciplinary research aimed at enhancing the communication abilities of mobile devices. Students selected for the fellowship will conduct research that integrates the disciplines of electrical engineering and computer science to promote a broader approach to meet the future challenges in a hyper connected world.

"The Henry Samueli School of Engineering has distinguished itself as a leading research institute where innovations in electrical engineering and computer science are rapidly taking place," said Paula Golden, executive director of the Broadcom Foundation. “These new fellowships enable Professor Li and his team to recruit the best and the brightest to continue this impressive trend."

“Because we have played a leading role in micro- and nano-enabling technology, UC Irvine is well positioned to offer graduate research training and engineering development in the area of universal communication to extend and enhance the sole electronic communication function of mobile devices to the physical and biological world,” said Li, who has shared appointments in biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and materials science. “The Broadcom Fellowship will help us not only recruit the top talented students in the communications field, but it will also allow us to focus on innovations for the future.”

The fellowships will focus on two core research areas. The first is research and development of multifunctional sensors that can be embedded in mobile devices and enrich people’s interaction experience with the device, or placed on the body to function as a sensor communicating between the brain and body about a health issue, such as low blood sugar. The second area is the research and development of advanced solutions for multi-function packaging. As more functional materials, components and sub-system are developed, the packaging solution must provide a novel means for facilitating integration within a constantly shrinking size and flexible encasement.

Fellowship applications will be accepted beginning Feb. 15, 2013, and the first fellows will begin spring quarter 2013.